Rachab of Jericho

Deliberately inching its way toward break of day, The morning sun begins to emblazon the barley field. Relaxing and watching the orb find its way, The lady of the house waits for night to yield. Like every morning, she is seated there, Enjoying the dew scented breeze on her veranda. Feeling its coolness on her scalp while combing her hair, And the warmth of the rising sun becoming grander. Her mind wanders back to the city of her birth, Just over the rise, beyond the barley field’s treasure, Lies the city with the most famous name on earth, Where, in her youth, she was a lady of pleasure. To Rachab went all of Jericho’s possession, By decree of God, for which Achan was stoned. For this soldier could not control his obsession, Though aware the city’s riches were God’s own. With God’s grace, Rachab’s wisdom grew, And she made the city’s outskirts her spread. Her land into a field of grain did accrue, A breadbasket from which hordes were fed. Her hires were the finest laborers in the land And were busy harvesting barley all spring. She paid the very best wage to every man, Cause her crop was the best early rains could bring. The fields and glades, that gave her pasture form, Seemed sensuous in every contour and rise. At daybreak, contrasting tones were the norm, Painted artfully by the brightening skies. Mounds appeared convexly round breasts, Lovingly sculpted over a span of human girth, Whose beauty was able to put the heart to a test, As the machinery of memory rotates the earth. Babbling brooks flowed from shady nooks, Giving refreshment to denizens of land and sky, Producing a scene of green worthy of picture books, That not one skilled artist would dare deny. Gingerly she rose the doorway torch to quench, Watching the shrinking darkness become shadows. Rachab calmly returns to her veranda bench, To observe butterflies dance above the meadows. In her dreams, she envisions a more golden age, When royalty would be attributed to her seed. A zephyr flows over her mind turning the page, But she still aspires the prospect of the throne to accede. What a lovely story to behold just beginning to dawn, Rising out yonder, just beyond the horizon of time. How we yearn to see that age return, now long forgone, So our hearts may once again be joyous and sublime.